We joined forces with the purpose-driven community at the Greater Purpose Conference East this October. Dive in for our recap, featuring takeaways from sessions on social purpose storytelling, initiatives doing good for people and planet, and how the event made an impact.
Purpose is at the heart of everything we do at Sparx. With our passion for igniting impact stories, our mission to make the world better, and our role as co-organizers of the Purpose Connections webinar series, we’re always ready to leap at the chance to make new, values-driven connections and collaborations.
This past October, Hamish Khamisa, Sparx President & Founder, and Alexandra Nikitina, our Head of Growth, travelled to Toronto to join forces with the purpose-driven community at the Greater Purpose Conference East. With the goal to amplify impact and shape the future, the energy at the event was high, sessions were diverse, and everyone was consumed by the excitement of the Blue Jays playing in the World Series.
Keep scrolling for our key highlights, including takeaways from sessions on social purpose storytelling, initiatives that are good for people and planet, and how the event made a positive impact.
Purpose was sparking at The Carlu, a historic Art Moderne venue in downtown Toronto. Over 300 attendees from Toronto and across Canada, including delegates from purpose-driven businesses in Vancouver, gathered together at this converted cinema to discuss all things impact, including several non-profits, charities, foundations, and prospective funders.
We spent most of the two-day conference seated at roundtables while listening to speakers on stage discuss purpose-aligned topics. Networking breaks provided a valuable chance to connect, mingle, and stretch our legs.
It was great catching up with our network of purpose-driven friends, including our peers from the Canadian Purpose Economy Project; learning about the good being done by foundations and non-profits in Toronto; and attending insightful sessions, all while enjoying the delicious food served at the event.
At Sparx, we’ve always championed storytelling and its role in amplifying good—it’s what we do best! So we were thrilled to see the conference schedule stacked with multiple sessions about this exact topic.
Day one featured the closing keynote, “Stories that Fill the Hope Gap – A New Playbook for Values-Driven Storytelling,” with Afdhel Aziz, Founding Partner and Chief Purpose Officer of Conspiracy of Love and Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Good is the New Cool. The keynote explored how stories have the power to heal, unite, and drive change; actionable tools and fresh strategies for values-driven storytelling; and turning purpose into powerful narratives that engage audiences and drive results.
Sharing stories of hope has long been an active part of our operations, especially through our in-house publication Make The World Better Magazine, so this session really resonated with us. We encourage you to check out the full replay for some major inspiration!
On the second day of the conference, we found the keynote, “How to Tell Stories That Mobilize Support and Shift Systems,” with filmmaker Inder Nirwan, CEO of Kahani Pictures, particularly intriguing in the context of today’s digital climate. As our world becomes increasingly overrun with AI-generated content, authenticity and human ingenuity are more important than ever, and long-form films are standing out more and more.
Along with sharing his tale of social purpose storytelling through the creation of documentary-style videos, Inder Nirwan emphasized that storytelling isn’t just for marketing purposes but is a powerful catalyst for positive change. It’s imperative that purpose-driven leaders find ways to overcome the challenge of effectively communicating the good they’re doing in a way that sparks emotional connections.
Finally, the session, “The Impact Stories the World Needs in 2026,” with Phillip Haid, CEO of Public Inc., was a standout. Today, organizations striving to do good find themselves pitted against an increasing number of communications challenges, and, for many, the struggle to tell their impact story has become harder than ever before.
Phillip Haid sought to address these challenges by sharing inspiring social impact stories. These examples helped demonstrate what effective and meaningful storytelling can look like in various formats and media, including commercials, which we found fascinating to watch.
Storytelling was such a large focus that the conference was concluded by Allyson Hewitt, Founder and CEO of Consultants in Social Innovation, who gave a poetry recap of the whole event.
Speaking of engaging narratives, during the conference, we got to see powerful storytelling on display first-hand. We learned about several social purpose initiatives that are doing good for people while contributing to a more sustainable world.
One remarkable initiative we learned about was the Washing Machine Project, which sets out to solve the burden of handwashing in low-income, remote, and displaced communities by designing, manufacturing, and distributing manual washing machines. These machines save 75% of the time associated with handwashing clothes, reducing a typical 2.5-hour wash to only 30 minutes, and saving 50% of the water, improving the lives of over 46,000 people. We were thrilled to chat with Dr. Navjot Sawhney, the project’s founder, about how he travels with the Divya Washing Machine.
Another initiative that caught our attention was the Meridian Attainable Housing Ecosystem. Comprised of several impact areas, including construction financing, purpose lending, financial coaching, charitable giving, advocacy, and marketing and communications, the ecosystem endeavours to assist with community building and meaningful employment, empowering municipalities to become more sustainable and economically resilient. Meridian achieves this through innovative housing financing models, targeted investments, and inclusive job partnerships.
Along with inviting agents for social change to share their stories, doing good was embedded into the Greater Purpose Conference East itself. Thanks to partnering with Be One To Give, surplus food from the event was collected and distributed to non-profits and other organizations that support food-insecure folks.
Do Good Donuts and Café also set up an amazing and delicious donut wall, and we were more than happy to take a bite. Especially since we love the work Do Good is doing to deliver work-based training for young adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities, equipping them with skills, confidence, and experience to succeed in finding employment in the community.
Plus, there were opportunities to participate in Kits for a Cause and visit with therapy dogs.
The Conference also stood as a platform for facilitating partnerships and collaborations, with a strong focus on sparking connections between philanthropic organizations and donors to help support and amplify their good.
Notably, the Greater Purpose Conference is increasingly focusing on driving positive corporate social impact, shifting its narrative from the “Partnership Conference” to the “Purpose Conference” for the first time this year. The Conference has made a good start, and we look forward to seeing how its story progresses.
Challenges, tensions, and geopolitical factors remain at play in the social purpose, non-profit, and philanthropic sectors, but are not insurmountable. Honest, engaging, and values-driven storytelling has the power to help overcome these issues and drive real positive change.
In the session, “The Golden Era of Corporate Partnerships Is Over – But We’re Building a Better One,” Muneer Panjwani, CEO of Engage For Good, said, “Reputation looks backward. Reputation is fickle. It’s time-bound. But relevance shapes the future. The question isn’t ‘how good do we look?’ It’s ‘how dispensable are we to solve for what’s next?’” A question that gave Sparx, in our role as purpose-driven marketers, a lot to reflect on.
And, as noted in the 2025 Conscious Consumer Report by Public Inc., which was presented at the event, “Keep speaking out on the issues that matter. But remember, it’s both what you say and how you say it that will determine success.” We will continue to assist values-aligned organizations and individuals in communicating their contributions to a better world, sharing their stories the right way.
Ready to share your social purpose story? Sparx is here to make sure your voice is heard, loud and clear. Contact us today for a free consultation.
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